The Achiever Newsletter

Top 10 Books - Edition 10

Encouraging our clients to read books has always been an integral part of our business. As a result, we’d like to periodically share 10 books that we feel should be included in your business and/or personal library. These books are not listed in order of sales, popularity, or recommendation. The numbers are used only for reference purposes. 

#1
Please Don’t Just Do What I Tell You, Do What Needs to Be Done
Every Employee’s Guide to Making Work More Rewarding
by Bob Nelson

Here’s another mini-book, 105 pages, that packs a real wallop in a simple, smart and savvy way. Bob Nelson is the million-copy best-selling author of the 1001 Ways series (1001 Ways To Reward Employees, 1001 Ways To Energize Employees, and 1001 Ways To Take Initiative At Work) and Managing for Dummies.

In what is certain to be Bob’s next best seller, he spells out the message that should be shared with every new employee and seasoned staff member alike: "You never need permission to do great work. Wherever you work, whomever you work for, management expects that you will always use your own best judgment and effort to figure out what needs to be done and then do it without having to be told." The author calls this The Ultimate Experience.

Wouldn’t you agree that this is a message that every employee needs to hear, but few employers explicitly state? Nelson illustrates his theory with examples and anecdotes from real life situations. He maps out a specific and easy-to-follow strategy that is brief, to the point, and inspiring.

Here’s another winner destined for your mini-book shelf!

#2
Practice What You Preach
What Managers Must Do to Create a High Achievement Culture
by David H. Maister

I can’t believe this book title hasn’t surfaced until now. It’s a phrase that most of us have known since childhood. It’s great advice and something you might assume to be an obvious game plan for anyone striving for success. I wonder if it’s been avoided for so long because so few people and organizations actually do it?

In this book, the author asked and answers a very simple question: "Are employee attitudes correlated with financial success?" The answer he found, was "an unequivocal ‘Yes!’" This highly respected consultant bases his findings on a worldwide survey of 139 offices in 29 professional service firms in 15 countries in 15 different lines of business. He proves that if your firm doesn’t promote enthusiasm and high morale in your employees, your firm will make less money. Maister wrote the text in plain language and deferred all statistical language and presentation to the appendices. You’ll learn, in no uncertain terms, how you can create a culture in your organization that promotes growth and superior financial returns.

Loaded with case studies, comparisons, strategies, questionnaires, and characteristics of successful organizations, this insightful work will facilitate your growth as a business leader and manager. Upon completion of this book and adoption of its principles, you’ll be well on your way to joining a very exclusive group of leaders ... those who practice what they preach!

#3
The Rule of Three
Surviving and Thriving in Competitive Markets
by Jagdish Sheth and Rajendra Sisodia

After reading this book, I realized that we are surrounded by so many things we take for granted. I discovered several deceptively simple but powerful principles and existing conditions that have been a part of my culture and environment for decades. What was both extremely interesting and, at the same time, unsettling was the fact that while these things were all around me, I had never noticed them. It makes me wonder how many other obvious principles, conditions, lessons, etc. are right under my nose and I have yet to discover them. It certainly makes tomorrow both exciting and challenging.

Let me share one of the obvious facts I learned from Sheth and Sisodia in their Rule of Three. Name any industry and more likely than not you will find that the three strongest, most efficient companies control 70% to 90% of the market. Consider these few examples:

The list goes on for pages. This book reveals why every market will be dominated by three major players, with small specialty players filling niche markets, and any company caught in the middle swallowed up and destroyed. True, there are a few examples where there are only two major competitors such as the Soft Drink market (Coke and Pepsi). However, efficiency's favorite number is three: two companies would lead to monopoly pricing or mutual destruction, while four guarantees consistent price wars.

Markets tend to fall into two complementary sectors—"generalists" which cater to a large, mainstream group of customers; and "specialists" who successfully concentrate on niche products (such as high-end audio gear) or niche markets (like fashions for professional women) at both the high and low ends of the market. Any company caught in the middle ("the ditch") is likely to be swallowed up or destroyed. The authors point out that most markets resemble a shopping mall with specialty shops anchored by large stores.

The authors examine this pattern of market evolution and the "radical disruption" that can occur when technology or regulation changes or a new entry "succeeds in altering the rules" (as Starbucks did by sneaking up on coffee's Big Three). Of particular value is the detailed descriptions of the strategies that are most likely to succeed and fail, and the most frequent causes of those outcomes.

Make certain you have an ample supply of highlighters before turning your first page because regardless of your industry, the size of your business, or your ambitions, you will be well rewarded by the time you spend with this book.

#4
The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player
Becoming the Kind of Person Every Team Wants
by John C. Maxwell

He’s b-a-c-k-k-k-k-k! If Maxwell wrote it — you should read it! He’s that darn good! Known as America’s expert on leadership, John C. Maxwell is founder of The INJOY Group, an organization dedicated to helping people maximize their personal and leadership potential. Through seminars, books, and tapes, Dr. Maxwell encourages and motivates more than one million people a year. Can you imagine having that kind of an impact on society? He’s earned it and certainly lives up to his reputation. He has authored more than twenty-five books including many we’ve mentioned in previous reviews and newsletter articles such as The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, Developing the Leader Within You, The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork, and Failing Forward.

Dr. Maxwell returns now with The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player. Teams have been around forever in every aspect of society... business, family, church, and recreation. However, today they seem to be more important than ever. While most leaders have read the books, attended the seminars, listened to the audio tapes, and claim to have heard it all when it comes to teamwork... how do you explain the scarcity of productive teams in most organizations today?

The author points out that any team is simply a collection of individuals. The challenge for each individual (team member) is to become the kind of person who can and will maximize his or her contribution and push the team forward to fulfill its mission. As usual, Dr. Maxwell teaches by taking a look at what works. He examines the triumphs of winning team players from all walks of life identifying the character traits that brought success their way. Learn how qualities such as discipline, enthusiasm, communication, preparation, and commitment in individuals can improve a team’s effectiveness as a whole.

Be sure to add this book to your library and Maxwell’s best-seller list, and you can’t go wrong!

#5
50 Companies That Changed The World
Incisive Profile of the 50 Organizations, Large and Small, That Have Shaped the Course of Modern Business
by Howard Rothman

This book is an excellent companion piece for any number of today’s current business magazines or newspapers trying to make sense of our current business climate. Over the past 200 years, a number of companies, both large and small, have made a substantial impact on our world and on the way business is done today. Learn how some of the greatest companies of all time achieved their success — found untapped niches, stayed on top of trends, managed progressively and encouraged creativity. You’ll also learn how some, nonetheless, fell from their pinnacle when they failed to follow the path that made them successful. Much of the history you’ll learn from Rothman’s research will certainly help you understand many of today’s headlines.

For each of the 50 companies spotlighted in the book, the author presents a lively sketch that describes, in great detail, the company from its founding and initial development through its heyday to the present time. Strengths and weaknesses alike are described at length in the context of each company’s individual operation, historical context, and specific industry. Along the way, you will meet individuals with extraordinary vision, courage, and commitment who struggled to realize their ideas and drive these companies to success. Learn about the early development of such vital operational innovations as the assembly line, franchising agreement, brand extension, and temporary employee.

If you’re a history buff or a student of business, a young uninitiated new employee or an older, more seasoned veteran, you’re going to want to add this book to your business and/or personal library.

#6
Whale Done!
The Power of Positive Relationships
by Ken Blanchard

This talented author, speaker and business consultant possesses a very unique God-given gift, as a storyteller, for making the seemingly complex easy to understand. He has done exactly that in the millions of books he has sold worldwide in more than 25 languages. When Ken speaks, he does so from the heart with warmth and humor. His unique gift is to speak to an audience and communicate with each person as if they were alone together. He is often described by his many fans as being one of the most insightful, powerful, and compassionate men in business today.

His rapidly-growing library of work includes such best sellers as Raving Fans, High Five!, Gung Ho!, Mission Possible, Everyone’s A Coach, Management by Values, The Heart of a Leader, Leadership by the Book, Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute, and his renowned series of One Minute Manager titles. Whale Done! is destined to join this list of best sellers.

As usual, Dr. Blanchard weaves a moving and inspirational yarn that will impact readers in a very positive and productive way. He’ll relate the similarities between employees, family members, friends and five-ton killer whales through the eyes of a gruff business manager and family man visiting SeaWorld. He reveals the research that substantiates the fact that both people and whales perform better when you accentuate the positive, build trust, and redirect negative behavior. He demonstrates how using the techniques of animal trainers — specifically those responsible for the killer whales of SeaWorld — can supercharge your effectiveness at work and at home.

Fictional business manager Wes Kingsley examines his own often accusatory management style and recognizes how some of his shortcomings as a manager and family man actually diminish trust and damages relationships. Join Wes in mastering and applying the powerful techniques that will allow you to become a better parent, more committed spouse, and more effective and respected leader. This123-page tale is certainly Whale Done!

#7
How to Succeed in Business Without Working So Damn Hard
Rethinking the Rules, Reinventing the Game
by Robert Kriegel

Here’s an author who grabs you with his titles and holds you with his content. Remember his previous best sellers, Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers and If it Ain't Broke…Break It!? Bob Kriegel has the uncanny ability of creating titles that attract readers to his content, provide them with useful tools and techniques to enhance their performance, while enticing them to return for more to his next best-seller. He’s a pioneer in the field of human performance and the psychology of change.

Kriegel has made his name crusading for more efficiency in the workplace. Kriegel looks at the long work-week and so-called "digital helpers." In an age where gadgets are designed to create more leisure time and promote convenience, we are working more than ever. Our average work week is climbing higher and higher and, since the proliferation of cell phones and the wireless Internet, it has become harder to escape the office. Kriegel provides us with an out. This book lays the groundwork for a new, more efficient working style with the classic tagline, "Work smarter, not harder." These days, it seems people are working harder than ever before. But does putting in longer hours necessarily translate into greater productivity? Robert J. Kriegel thinks not. All too often, individuals respond to a chaotic work environment by racing to meet deadlines, spinning their wheels, and missing opportunities to create positive change.

He suggests that finding success in today's business world means breaking old habits and adopting new ideas that can dramatically increase performance levels, like having younger employees tutor the more senior, technology-phobic. As conventional systems are challenged, dramatic new solutions are revealed, and everyone gets ahead without working so damn hard. This book is a well-written and helpful antidote to the rat race.

#8
Survival is Not Enough
Zooming, Evolution, and the Future of Your Company
by Seth Godin

This author is a former Yahoo executive, a renowned speaker, a contributing editor to Fast Company and author of Unleashing the Ideavirus which has been downloaded more than a million times, making it the most popular ebook ever. He’s been credited as being one of the world’s most original thinkers and doesn’t hesitate to demonstrate it chapter after chapter.

Godin is the creator of the concept he declares is the description for business survival. He calls it "Zooming" and defines it as "stretching your limits without threatening your foundation."

In this book, he turns his attention to the predominant issue facing all business today: change. The result is a wide-ranging and eclectic menu of useful ideas that just about anyone looking to enhance their career, job satisfaction, and their company's prospects would do well to consider

This book advocates making it easier for employees to initiate small changes. He makes the case that companies need to evolve more quickly in the current environment, and he identifies policies and attitudes that are conducive to more rapid evolution. Although he is obviously an original thinker, I couldn’t help but notice that so many of his observations were little more than common sense.

For example, he argues that most companies:

Now that I look back over these examples, I guess I should say they are little more than "uncommon sense" due to the fact that most leaders know and agree with these observations but seldom do anything to avoid the negative consequences of each.

Godin provides a groundbreaking new way to organize companies to thrive during times of change. It contains a simple yet revolutionary idea: We can evolve our companies the same way nature evolves a species. Throughout the book, the metaphor of evolution is used in this way to enliven the discussion. He claims Darwin was absolutely right when he declared that evolution was a fundamental force of nature. Godin demonstrates how this force can be unleashed in any organization and become more profitable upon doing so.

He shares tactics for accelerating evolution, declares that the basic building block is people, challenges readers with a long list of very direct eye-opening questions, and revisits a number of traditional truths about the subject of change.

#9
The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell
The Performance of an Organization is the Ultimate Measure of its Leader
by Oren Harari

Here’s a book that caught me totally off guard and turned out to be much different than I had expected. I must admit that I was drawn to it because I had the opportunity to meet Colin Powell in person at a reception following one of his many motivational offerings as part of a national speaking tour. Observing him from the audience and later at the reception, I couldn’t help but admire his ability to captivate, motivate, and communicate with a wide variety of personality and leadership styles. Like him or not — agree with or not — you’ve got to admit that this man exudes integrity as he proves to be witty, articulate, insightful, and self-deprecating. He spoke on leadership that particular day and it was obvious that he was an authority on the subject. He held the audience in the palm of his hand throughout his presentation. Meeting him in person was even more impressive as he looks you straight in the eye and focuses on your every word. It’s easy to understand why he’s gained the admiration and respect of so many.

Now let me tell you about the book. As I mentioned earlier, this book is misleading — which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you’re thinking of passing on this particular publication because you’re not interested in the military and/or politics, you might want to take a closer look. This is obviously a book on leadership and you don’t have to be a CEO, Lieutenant-colonel, Senator, or even a front-line manager to find value here. Any reader will find wisdom here that can easily be applied to daily life.

This book is not a biography of Colin Powell. Again, it dwells on leadership using Powell as the source and role model for the principles it shares and attempts to apply to any setting.

This book is not written by Powell nor is it intended as a tribute to Colin Powell. The author is a professor of management at the University of San Francisco, speaker, consultant, and prominent author of six previous books. Although it’s obvious that the author respects, admires, and even likes Powell, he admits that this renowned leader has his critics and detractors, and even includes some of their opinions throughout the book. I found this refreshing as it added credibility and realism to the contents.

Something I found especially useful was a content summary and a recap of Powell Principles at the end of each chapter. At the end of the book you’ll find a seven page Leadership Primer containing Quotations from Chairman Powell... an article reprinted from a previous issue of the American Management Association magazine. In it you’ll find 18 priceless leadership lessons... a compendium of advice from the General that anyone will find useful in today’s challenging environment.

Let me close this review with a few samples of what you’ll find within the pages of The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell.

#10
The War for Talent
Winning the War for Leadership Talent
by Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield-Jones, and Beth Axelrod

For the longest time, you had to search for a book that dealt with the subject of attracting, developing, motivating, and retaining talent. Now it seems as though we’re inundated with books on the subject. There’s obviously a reason for this trend. There’s been a real talent search in most every industry for the past few years. However, in a market characterized by uncertainty, instability, and an incredible number of layoffs, many firms have eased their concern about finding and retaining good people assuming the war for talent is over. Experts tell us it is not! In fact, the authors of this book reveal that, because of enduring economic and social forces, the war for talent will persist for the next two decades!

Ed Michaels is a recently retired Director of the celebrated McKinsey & Company consulting firm. Helen Handfeld-Jones is a Senior Practice Expert with McKinsey in Toronto, and Beth Axelrod is a Principal of McKinsey in Stamford, Connecticut. The three combined talent to conduct five years of in-depth research to identify the programs and behaviors that help today’s foremost firms attract and retain the best kinds of employees — including surveys of 13,000 executives at more than 120 companies and case studies of 27 leading companies.

As a result of their efforts they define Talent as shorthand for a key employee who possesses "a sharp strategic mind, leadership ability, communications skills, the ability to attract and inspire people, entrepreneurial instincts, functional skills, and the ability to deliver results." They also uncovered a definitive connection between top performers and superior corporate achievement.

The authors share five common imperatives that companies need to act on if they are going to win the war for managerial talent and make talent a competitive advantage:

1. Embrace a Talent Mindset
2. Craft a Winning Employee Value Proposition
3. Rebuild Your Recruiting Strategy
4. Weave Development into Your Organization
5. Differentiate and Affirm Your People

The authors offer an array of unique suggestions that will provide your organization with a new approach to talent management. For instance: